IEEE plugs into consumer power standards

SAN JOSE, Calif. – The IEEE announced at CES a broad effort to identify known and missing standards for delivering power and energy services to a wide variety of consumer and automotive electronics systems. As one part of its work, the Power Matters Alliance expects to define a digital layer above today’s wireless charging technologies, enabling software and services to interact with power intelligently.

Duracell, Facebook, Google, General Motors and Powermat are among the initial members of the group. Its work will span areas including automotive, mobile, computing, consumer electronics, smart batteries, household power, and power in public places.

PMA will flesh out the suite of standards under the name Power 2.0 that will be used to provide advanced power to devices, the IEEE said in a press statement. It will reference existing standards and define gaps that new standards will address.

"The PMA has set itself the goal of defining the next generation of protocols for smart power, and it has the backing to deliver on this promise," said William Stofega, program director of mobile device technology at market watcher International Data Corp.

"The Power 2.0 specification will enable developers to create applications and services atop our wireless power platform," said Chris Thibodeau, of the electrical systems, 12V energy, and UI design group at general Motors. "We look forward to working with the rest of the industry to ensure that Power 2.0 becomes the standard across the automotive sector worldwide."

"The PMA aims to bring a layer of intelligence to the power distribution and consumption ecosystem," said Vint Cerf, chief internet evangelist at Google. "This idea has also been recognized in the Smart Grid effort launched by the US Departments of Commerce and Energy," he added.

"The PMA could open the door for managed power," said Bruce Nordman, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "We can reinvent our electricity from the bottom-up, with nano-grids for a system architecture modeled on Internet principles so that a table with embedded wireless power could act as a nanogrid, and so can a car," he added.

It International Energy Agency (IEA) reported in May 2011 that "energy-related carbon dioxide emissions during the year of 2010 were the highest in history." In 2007, IEA estimated that standby "vampire" loads represent 1% of the world's CO2 emissions, and subsequently set out a plan to reduce standby loads to 1 W /device by 2010 and 0.5 W/device by 2013. I hope that Power 2.0 is even more aggressive than this. For most consumer devices, no -- ZERO -- standby power at all is needed. DVRs are the biggest culprits, with no "wake on lan"-style implementation for recording or software updates out of sheer laziness and faux cost reduction (c.f. impact of CO2 emissions on the planet). Get with it, Power 2.0, and push for a substantial reduction in standby power. And I hope the tech press keeps their feet to the global warming fire!